Unlike its identical neighbor, the brownstone facade of 119 East 26th Street has been painted.
Two families--the Jewells and Keanes--shared the newly built brownstone-clad house at 93 East 26th Street in 1851. (It would be renumbered 119 in 1867.) It was one of a row of identical, high-stooped Italianate residences and rose three stories tall above the basement level. The iron railings of the stoop matched those of the parlor balcony. A simple, molded frame embraced the double-doored entrance, and the elliptically arched openings sat upon bracketed sills. Each of the homes had its own pressed metal cornice with robust scrolled brackets.
Presley B. Jewell was a painter and Patrick A. Keane was a shipjoiner (a craftsman who installed wooden components like decking and cabinetry in ships). Patrick's wife, Mary Ann Keane, died here on December 18, 1852 and her funeral was held in the parlor on the 20th.
Despite their proletariat professions, the Jewells and Keane lived in upscale surroundings. When the furnishings were sold at auction on April 27, 1853, they included parlor furniture "made to order," a "splendid 6-1/2 octave piano made by Nunn & Clark," china tea and coffee sets, and "rich crimson curtains."
The house was next leased by French-born Valiente Parfirio. An author and historian, he would publish Reformes dans les Iles de Cuba et de Porto-Rico (Reforms in the Islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico) in Paris in 1869. The Parfirio family rented spare rooms. An advertisement in the New York Herald in 1854 offered,
A gentleman and wife, or a few single gentlemen, can find pleasant rooms, with the comfort of a home, at 93 East Twenty-sixth street. French and English spoken in the family.
The house was sold at auction on February 11, 1859. The announcement described, the "very desirable and elegant house" as having, "plate glass in windows, stained glass entering third room, mahogany doors, baths, wash tubs and other modern improvements."
Thomas H. and Mary C. Geraty purchased the property, and their son, Thomas Jr., was born shortly afterward. The infant contracted croup early in 1860, and died on February 16. His miniature coffin sat in the parlor until his funeral on February 18.
The house saw at least two occupants over the next seven years. Then, around 1867, Elizabeth Benedict purchased it. Many widows operated their homes as boarding houses, but Elizabeth (the widow of Benjamin Benedict) seems to have been financially secure. She spent her summers away from the city. On May 5, 1870, Elizabeth advertised, "The neatly furnished house No. 119 East Twenty-sixth street to let until October." She charged $225 per month, about $5,420 in 2025 terms.
Elizabeth Benedict remained here for more than two decades, selling it in February 1890 to John J. Emery for $13,500 (about $466,000 today). Emery resold the house to Gustav and Gertrude Romer four years later.
The Romers leased it to a Mrs. Hall, who operated it as a boarding house. Also living here were her daughter and son-in-law, Genevieve and Frank Allen. Allen was described by The Morning Telegraph as, "an expert accountant and bookkeeper." He earned $3,500 a year, a comfortable $133,000 today. He married Genevieve Hall ( whom the newspaper said was "a small and pretty blonde") in 1884 and, according to The Morning Telegraph, "they took up the struggle of life together and lived happily."
In fact, not everything had been happy within the marriage. According to Allen, his wife "was a very jealous woman, and, much to his sorrow, she began to suspect that he paid attention to other women," said The Morning Telegraph. She demanded a divorce, but Allen would not consent and spent "thousands of dollars in fighting her actions." Allen insisted he was "guiltless of any misconduct" and "always conducted himself with extreme propriety and took great pains not to arouse the jealousy of his suspecting wife."
Around 1897, Maskel Phelps took a room in the house. Ironically, before long it was Frank Allen who suspected hanky-panky. The following year, he arranged for a friend, Lewis Lawrence, to obtain a room in the house "as a spy." Lawrence later admitted he, "took up his lodgings there for the express purpose of trapping Mrs. Allen for the benefit of the husband."
With the resulting evidence, Frank Allen moved out and on August 30, The Morning Telegraph reported, "Allen charges his wife...with misconduct with Maskel Phelps." He told a reporter, "that instead of his being a wrongdoer it is his wife who has been misconducting herself, and that her conduct has become unendurable to him."
A less controversial resident was Paul Jursch, who sat on the School Board and was appointed a commissioner of deeds in 1901. He would remain at least through 1903.
Another boarder at the time was Dr. Martin Downey. He was summoned to appear before the president of the Board of Health on June 17, 1903 to explain his failure "to report cases of scarlet fever" as required by the Sanitary Code.
Gustav and Gertrude Romer sold the house to Arthur P. Holland in November 1908. He leased it to banker Herbert Seymour of Brown Brothers & Co. A bachelor, he shared the house with his unmarried sister, Gertrude Seymour. Seymour's financial and social status was reflected in his memberships in the New York Yacht and the Calumet Clubs. Herbert Seymour suffered a heart attack on June 6, 1912 and died in the house ten days later.
In 1941, the Italianate stoop railings and parlor balcony survived. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
At some point after mid-century, the iron balcony was removed and the stoop railings updated. In the early 1970s, the A.C.T. Family Center, a therapy clinic for parents and teenaged children, occupied space in the house. An advertisement in Newsday in 1971 explained in part:
Parents, teen-agers, and a work-team of two counselors sit down together in a living room atmosphere in a comfortable Manhattan town house and talk it out--not as a "case" being "treated," but as fellow human beings seeking honest communication and workable solutions.
A renovation completed in 1988 resulted in two duplex residences in the house.
photographs by the author
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